This Popular Retail Chain Is Closing All of Its Stores as of Sept. 30
This retailer has already started liquidation sales at its remaining locations.
There's no guarantee that your favorite store is going to stay in business—especially these days. Financial hardships exacerbated by the pandemic, changes in shopper buying patterns, and now inflation have all aided in companies across the board paring down their retail footprint over the last few years. And this concerning trend of store closures is hardly over. In fact, one popular chain just announced that it's closing up shop completely. Read on to find out which company is shuttering all of its remaining stores this fall.
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Several companies have recently shuttered all their stores.
While even big names like Walmart and CVS have closed locations here and there across the country, some companies have not been able to keep any of their stores afloat.
Since 2020, there have been a number of businesses that have closed all of their stores in the U.S. In the past two years alone, we've lost Lord & Taylor, Stein Mart, Family Video, Fry's Electronics, and Stock+Field—just to name a few. Companies like Kmart are almost gone completely, as this retailer has just three locations left open after closing more stores in 2022.
Now, another retailer has just announced that it's closing all of its stores this year.
These stores will be gone completely by October.
Popular sports chain Olympia Sports is shuttering all of its retail stores before the end of year, the Portland Press Herald reported on July 22. A spokesperson for the company told the newspaper that all 35 of its remaining stores would close by the end of September. But the Olympia Sports spokesperson said she did not know how many employees will be affected by the permanent closures, according to the Portland Press Herald.
"It is kind of sensitive for a lot of the store managers," an unnamed Massachusetts store manager told the newspaper. "A lot of people have been here for 30-plus years. A lot of people, they've never worked anywhere else. We only found out on Monday morning, and we're already running the closing sale … It's still kind of sensitive and raw for a lot of people."
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The chain has been around for almost 50 years.
Olympia Sports is going out of business just a few years before its 50th anniversary. According to the Portland Press Herald, the Maine-based sports retailer was founded in 1975, when its first store opened in South Portland. At its peak around 2013, there were more than 200 locations spread across the East Coast from Maine to Virginia.
Right before the pandemic in 2019, however, there were just 150 Olympia Sports stores left open in the U.S. That same year, the company was bought by JackRabbit, an active lifestyle brand based in Denver, Colorado, and 76 stores were closed as part of the acquisition.
Olympia Sports has already started liquidation sales at its remaining locations.
The spokesperson for Olympia Sports told the Portland Press Herald that all of the 35 remaining stores have already started liquidation sales. On its official website, Olympia Sports has a banner that reads: "Everything must go! Closing Sale. All locations. See store for details."
According to its store locator, the remaining locations are spread through several Northeastern states, including New York, Pennsylvania, Vermont, New Hampshire, Massachusetts, and Maine.
